James Day, Raines High School track coach from 1965 to 1997, is one of eight new inductees into the Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame. | News4Jax
Published on September 3, 2025 at 12:56 pm
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The late James Day, Raines High School track coach from 1965 to 1997, is one of eight new members of the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
The association announced its 35th induction class this week, saying it is honored to celebrate remarkable individuals whose contributions have left a lasting mark on interscholastic athletics in the state.
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Day, who passed away Feb. 26, 2022, at age 78, mentored generations of student-athletes and led them to championships, scholarships and lifelong success, the association says.
Under Day’s leadership, Raines compiled a record of 612 wins, 82 losses and nine ties, capturing two state championships, six state runner-up finishes and 36 district championships.
Day also served as athletic director at Raines for 20 years, was honored as Track Coach of the Year 10 times, and was recognized as Coach of the Year in 1976 by the Jacksonville Track Club and the Florida Athletic Coaches Association.
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Day also was the driving force behind the Bob Hayes Invitational Track and Field Meet, which he began leading in 1967 as it grew into the nation’s largest single-day high school track meet. He also introduced a middle school division in 1996, developing the event into a training ground and clinic for young athletes, FHSAA said.
After his 1997 retirement from Raines, he continued serving as meet director at events that included 215 schools and 4,500 athletes.
Other Florida High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductees this year:
- Craig Curry, who crossed the racial divide to enroll in 1965 at historically white Coral Gables Senior High School as its first Black quarterback, when federal desegregation closed George Washington Carver High School.
- Nickolas Grasso, an administrator who has dedicated more than 35 years to shaping high school athletics in Florida as administrator, coach and mentor, plus serving as president of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors and president of the High School Principals’ Association.
- Paul Green, who established the third-largest junior high school sports program in the United States.
- Arman Hall, a St. Thomas Aquinas High School sprinter (2008–2012), recognized as one of the most accomplished track and field athletes in Florida high school history.
- Alan Keen, who dedicated more than three decades to shaping the lives of student-athletes and advancing the growth of interscholastic sports throughout Miami-Dade County.
- Terry E. Lee Sr., who dedicated 45 years to advancing high school athletics in Florida as a longtime member of the Mid-Florida Officials Association.
- Dwight Thomas, who dedicated more than three decades to football as a teacher, coach, mentor and advocate with a 102-66-2 record in his time as a head coach at Escambia High School.
Corrected: An earlier version of this story misstated what sport James Day coached. He was head track coach, not head football coach.
